coal hard to keep alive

[kogatana]

Now that I started to hammer, I've been contaminated with the virus "blacksmithobacilus hammergus"!

But... I have been struggling to keep my coal burning since my first attempt 3 weeks ago (I'm at my 3rd sunday of blacksmithing only).

It works very fine at the begining, I first light a fire with charcoal, then add fresh coal. It will provide me a nice heat. But after some time, the fire will die, even with a constant blowing and adding new coal.

Yesterday sunday, I restarted 3 times my fire (same process: small wood fire, then add charcoal then coal).

So...

Should I remove burnt coal and if so, how do I know it has to be removed? Is it when the fire dies?

Also, I remember seeing a japanese blacksmith rinsing his combustible but don't remember what kind it was (charcoal, coke or coal). Should I rinse coal to get rid of its dust?

Ludo

[Gary]

Kogatana, what type of coal are you using, and what is your air source? Soft bituminous coal lights easiest and stays lit with less air movement. If you have hard anthracite coal it's much harder to light and to keep lit, and demands a constant air supply. Is your air getting clogged where it comes into the forge?

[Don A]

Sounds like too small a grate and too much clinker.

Give us a description of you fire-pot configuration.

Do you notice an accumulation of brown, glassy looking globs around your air grate when the fire dies down? This would be clinker.

Also, if the grate is too tight, ash accumulation can choke your fire.

A lot of the "Lively style", "forge-b-que", and other blade forges designed exclusively for charcoal will choke quickly with coal. They are built to blow off the light charcoal ash as it accumulates. Coal crud just lays there.

Remember: a clean fire is a useful fire.

Don

[Ed Thomas]

Ludo, I think Gary identified the problem -- you must be using anthracite. I don't use the stuff, but expect you could keep it going better by building a deeper fire, and keeping the boundary pretty well insulated with more coal. Since good anthracite is nearly pure carbon, you probably don't have any clinker; just some ash. Is that what you see? If the "coal" does not ever burn away, you might have a very bad grade of anthracite coal that is practically slate. I tried some of that once and it is worthless for forging.

You might have some luck occasionally blending some wood and charcoal with the fire even after it is started. Keep the fire mounded over; don't let it get hollow in the middle. Keep at least a trickle of air to it even when not in use for heating.

This is what I'd do with anthracite; though as I said my experience with it is limited.

[kogatana]

Gary, Ed, Don,

I think the best way to document this conversation is to describe my forge... on my just created one day old blog.

I've posted some pictures here:
At last blacksmithing

Maybe you'll need to wait 10mn before what I'm writing now on the blog is published and available on the web.

Ludo

[kogatana]

The article is online.
Link to the pictures:
View of the blower (air admission has since then changed).
FirstBlow_30.JPG (image)
Combustible and partial view of the new air admission (I hope you could identify what type of coal I'm using).
Forge_w_coal_30.JPG (image)
Latest configuration:
forge_brick_30.JPG (image)

Ludo

[kogatana]

Should the coal burn completely, reducing itself to ash? I have never got ash with the coal. So maybe I've thrown away some (not much) coal that could still be burnt!

What is clinker exactly? Does it look as if chunks of coal had melted together? If so, I didn't see this in my forge.

Ludo

[Nick]

I admit I'm a bit confused by throwing coal away. Are you taking out and discarding still burning pieces of the fire? The coal burns and produces coke, which is good for a forge.

The clinker looks like melted glass and pumice, sometimes gray, sometimes orange. It's hard and brittle, forms at the bottom of the firepot, and makes your life difficult. It sticks to things and clogs the tueyre.

[backyardsmith]

i use coal in my forge and all is left is ash and clinkers ( they look nothing like coal) im thinking its your air sorce because like in the above posts the lively style forge isnt ment for coal so it might help if you change it to a bottem blast or side blast and is your coal hard and shiney when you brake it (anthracite)? or soft and black( bittomous) cant spell


and i dont get why people say anthracite is hard to keep lit becasue i use it and

ive turned the blower off and it stayed red for at least 20 mins before i turned the blower on

[Nick]

50% of my coal is anthracite. I keep it seperated from my good coal, and use it for warming my anvil in the winter, large sheet metal work like raising a helm since I don't need a beehive, that sort of thing. Sometimes it stays lit, sometimes it's a bugger to keep going. And it always goes out twice or more as fast as my good bituminous coal.

[kogatana]

I'll check the exact nature of that coal tonight (it's the morning now in Taiwan), will break a piece or two and take close-ups.
I haven't got clinker for sure.
The little amount of what I thought was burnt out coal that I've thrown away, I can still take it back to the fire! It's not gone yet.